WESTERN COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT NETWORK

Community assessment programs help small towns identify their strengths, challenges, desired changes, and the local and non-local resources needed to meet community goals across a wide variety of focus areas, from business development, to civic engagement and land use planning. Currently we know of six such programs in the U.S., and they are in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Michigan, Wisconsin and Vermont. There are many other assessment programs that are targeted more narrowly at main street revitalization, health services, food systems and tourism, to name just a few. Sharing state borders and rural communities with common issues led to a tri-state, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming partnership for this project. In 2017 - 2020, our primary focus was learning about, evaluating and redesigning our community assessment programs, now called "Community Reviews" in all three states. Since 2020, when we received a second grant from USDA, we have also focused on 1) developing a virtual community review..

Also known as: WeCAN, Western

Primary location: Moscow United States